Active involvement by patients in their own health care has been shown to lead to greater overall patient satisfaction, which in turn results in greater trust and compliance. Increased tolerance for discomfort, reduced stress, reduced medical complications, enhanced placebo effects, and increases in overall benefit to quality of care depends significantly on patients being well informed about the care that they are receiving. Today, patients have several informational resources at their disposal to become well-informed about their care. For example, physicians typically explain symptoms, diagnoses, conditions, and treatments to patients verbally when the physician is meeting with the patient. Unfortunately, with increasing stresses on the healthcare system, in-person explanations may not meet all the informational needs of the patient. Additionally, these in-person explanations are not always readily accessible as physicians become more and more in demand.
Educational materials that can be accessed by individuals regarding procedures undertaken with respect to the patient in the past and medications taken by the patient in the past provide additional information for the patient about the care that she is receiving or expects to receive. Oftentimes, these materials can be overwhelming to patients experiencing emotional distress, as is often the case in hospital environments. Furthermore, in many instances, patients will lack literacy with respect to certain medical terms. Further, information packets are rarely tailored to a specific patient. Also, traditional media for delivering information to patients (e.g., paper) makes dynamic and customized delivery of medical information difficult.
In addition to the aforementioned information sources, in the relatively recent past electronic medical records (EMRs) have been made available to patients, thereby allowing patients to have unprecedented levels of access to their own medical data. Despite such availability, however, patients often remain uninformed about tests and procedures conducted during clinical visits, leaving them ill-equipped to participate in important medical decisions. This discrepancy is largely a consequence of the structure and terminology used in EMRs, which are designed for clinicians and administrators rather than for patients.